|
|
||
Man convicted of stabbing cousin Date published: 7/2/2009
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
A 30-year-old Culpeper man was convicted yesterday of malicious wounding after stabbing his cousin last July for no apparent reason. Shawn Michael Banks was also convicted in Culpeper County Circuit Court of spitting on a police officer (felony assault) while in jail last November. In the bench trial, 40-year-old Sarah Toliver Banks testified before Judge Jack Berry that she had arrived at her grandmother's house on Belle Court last July 26 and was sitting at the dining room table when she felt a sharp pain in her back. The victim, who said she had not seen her assailant at the residence before she was stabbed, testified that her younger cousin lunged at her again and she attempted to escape into a bedroom. Eva Banks, grandmother of both the victim and the suspect, said she heard yelling and came out of her bedroom to find Shawn Banks standing over Sarah Banks with a knife. Eva Banks also testified that she then asked Shawn Banks for the knife and he gave it to her without incident. Christine Banks, Shawn Banks' mother, also testified that she saw her son standing in the dining room with a knife and that Sarah Banks was bleeding from her back. Town police Officer Ashley Banks, no relation, arrested Shawn Banks on the scene, also without incident. Sgt. Julie Brooking testified that she found Sarah Banks in a bedroom on her stomach bleeding from a stab wound to the back. The victim spent nine days in the hospital with rib and lung injuries. Shawn Banks was charged with felony assault on a police officer after a Nov. 14 incident when the prisoner, while in his cell, lunged at Culpeper County deputy T. E. Bell and spit on both his forehead and his arm. Banks, who will be sentenced on Sept. 8, faces a maximum of 20 years on the malicious wounding charge and up to five years (a mandatory six months) on the assault charge. Donnie Johnston:
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
||||||||||||
